Year-End List! My Favorite Photos Posted in 2015

by Paula Bosse

Need a cab? They’re waiting for your call… (click for larger image)

by Paula Bosse

Today I’m posting my favorite photos used in Flashback Dallas posts over the past year. I try to use photos and images that haven’t been seen very often, so I tend to go through a LOT of photos in search of cool and interesting little nuggets of forgotten Dallas history. I’ve seen a lot of photographs over the past year, but the ones listed below are the ones that, for whatever reason, resonated with me the most. To see a larger image of each photo, click it; to see the original post the photo came from (with its source), click the linked title.

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1.“The Allen Street Taxi Company.” Hands down, this photo (seen at the top of this post) is my favorite of the past year, found deep in the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection of SMU’s invaluable DeGolyer Library. The Cook Collection is an incredible collection of historical photographs made available online this year by SMU. I love this photo, and I feel I’ve looked at it for hours. There’s so much to see in it. Check out the original post (linked above) to view several magnified details of a photo that screams out for magnified details.

14. “The Dallas Athletic Club Building — 1925-1981.” A view of the rooftop of the then-under construction Dallas Athletic Club. This photo appeared in a catalog for a manufacturer of construction materials, and I feel confident it hasn’t been seen since that catalog came out in 1924. Pretty cool!

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15. “Views From a Passing Train — 1902.” Pacific Avenue (which was once a railroad thoroughfare for the Texas & Pacific Railway) doesn’t get enough love. Here’s a photo taken by a traveling Philadelphia architect — probably from the back of his train — looking west on Pacific toward Bryan.

“The Republic Bank Building and Spain’s ‘Casa de Los Picos.'” One of the Republic Bank Building’s instantly recognizable exterior aluminum panels, seen in an ad for the Minnesota company that manufactured them. Another image that’s been tucked away for far too long! It’s really grainy, but I LOVE this photo!

“The Gypsy Tea Room, Central Avenue, and The Darensbourg Brothers.” A photo I used only a detail of (showing only Percy Darensbourg — at the right on banjo), but this is the full photo, showing Lee Collins’ band in Dallas in 1925 or 1926. Fantastic photo of musicians who would have played clubs in the South, including stops in Deep Ellum and North Dallas.